Structure of Packing Material Inflated With Air

ABSTRACT

Disclosed is a structure of a packing material inflated with air. Conventionally, the packing material inflated with air has a bad appearance due to protrusions formed at opposite sides of a lower end of its body, as well as generates a gap between its bodies when stacked in a storage box, and thus fails to allow the loading of a great deal of products in the storage box. The disclosed packing material inflated with air is formed so as to prevent the opposite side of the lower end of its body from protruding when spread, thereby creating beauty in appearance. Further, when a lot of the disclosed packing materials are stacked in the storage box, they are brought into close contact with each other, so that more products can be stably loaded in the storage box.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a structure of packing materialinflated with air, and more particularly to a structure of packingmaterial inflated with air, capable of, when the packing material isspread by air injection, preventing opposite sides of a lower end of apacking material's body from protruding to improve appearance of thepacking material for its own sake, as well as, when a plurality ofpacking materials are stacked in a storage box, bringing the packingmaterials into close contact with each other to stably load moreproducts in the storage box.

BACKGROUND ART

In general, packing materials has been used to prevent a finishedproduct from being damaged by shock or scratch. Such packing materialsmust generally have light weight, and a certain degree of cushion andstrength because they are held in a storage box together with theproduct. Conventionally, Styrofoam, corrugated cardboards, air gap bags,and the like have been used as the packing materials, but they have lowfunctionality for the following reasons that it is difficult to processthem in correspondence with various products, that they have lowcapability of absorbing and offsetting shock, and that they are notmodified and used in a desired form when they are stored with a smallvolume and then packed with the product. In order to solve this problem,a packing material inflated with air, a so-called air packing box, hasbeen used recently, which is adapted to further improve its function andto allow the product to be more stably protected from shock, scratch,and the like. The air packing box takes a desired shape by supplyingitself with air using a separate air pump. The product is enclosed andpacked by the air packing box, thereby being protected from beingdamaged by shock, scratch, and so on. This air packing box is spread byair supplied on opposite sides of a lower end of its body when inflated,and in the meantime protrudes outside its periphery. When the airpacking boxes are stacked in a storage box together with products,protrusions of the opposite sides of the lower end of its body arebrought into contact with each other, thus generating a gap between theair packing box bodies. Due to these protrusions, each air packing boxprovides bad appearance. Furthermore, due to the gap generated by theprotrusions, several products are not loaded in one storage box when theair packing boxes are stacked in the storage box.

DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION Technical Problem

Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of theabove-mentioned problems, and it is an objective of the presentinvention to provide a structure of a packing material inflated withair, capable of, when the packing material is spread by air injection,preventing opposite sides of a lower end of a packing material's bodyfrom protruding so as to improve the appearance of the packing material,as well as, when a plurality of packing materials are stacked in astorage box, bringing the packing materials into close contact with eachother to stably load more products in the storage box.

Technical Solution

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided astructure of a packing material inflated with air, which ischaracterized in that cutout sections are formed at opposite sides of alower end of a packing material's body, and adhesion surfaces locatedbetween two air pockets adjacent to the cutout sections are formed withguide holes so as to be supplied with air from other air pockets.Thereby, when the packing material is spread by injection of air, theopposite sides of the lower end of the packing material's body areprevented from protruding outside a circumference of the body, so thatwhen a plurality of packing materials are stacked in a storage box, thepacking materials are stacked so as to be brought into close contactwith each other, and that more products can be stably loaded in thestorage box, compared to a conventional packing material inflated withair.

ADVANTAGEOUS EFFECTS

According to the present invention, when the packing material is spreadby injection of air, the opposite sides of the lower end of the packingmaterial's body are prevented from protruding, so that when a pluralityof packing materials are stacked in a storage box, the packing materialsare brought into close contact with each other, and thereby moreproducts can be stably loaded in the storage box, and the packingmaterial can be improved in its own appearance.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The foregoing and other objects, features and advantages of the presentinvention will become more apparent from the following detaileddescription when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings inwhich:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a packing material inflated with airillustrating an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a development view of a packing material inflated with airillustrating an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken along lines A-A of FIG. 2; and

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view taken along lines B-B of FIG. 2.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiments of thepresent invention. The present invention provides a structure of apacking material inflated with air, which includes a pocket-like body(4) forming a plurality of air pockets (10) partitioned by adhesionsurfaces (8) along a circumference thereof and opened at an upperportion thereof, an injection section (14) formed on one side of thebody (4) and provided with an injection hole (12), an air passage (16)connected to the injection hole (12) and transversely disposed in thebody (4), valves (18) connected to the air passage (16) and installed inthe air pockets (10), and a cover (16) integrally extending from a rearupper end of the body (4) and formed so as to connect a plurality of airpockets (10) partitioned by the adhesion surfaces (8) to the air pockets(10) of the body (4), wherein the body (4) is formed with cutoutsections (24) on opposite sides of a lower end thereof. Further, theadhesion surfaces (8) located on opposite sides of the front of the body(4) and between two of the air pockets (10) adjacent to the cutoutsections (24) may be formed with guide holes (25), which pass throughthe adhesion surfaces (8) and are adapted to be supplied with air fromother air pockets (10). Referring to FIGS. 1 through 4, first, an airpacking box 2 adapted to hold a product is comprised of a pocket-likebody 4 an upper portion of which is opened, and a cover 6 thatintegrally extends from a rear upper end of the body 4 (see FIG. 1). Theair packing box 2 can be manufactured such that it is modified to adesired form according to a shape of the product to be packed. The body4 includes a plurality of air pockets 10, which are partitioned andtransversely arranged by adhesion surfaces 8 formed by high-frequencyheating of internal and external packing films. The body 4 is formedwith an injection section 14, which extends from one side of the body 4and has an injection hole 12, so as to be capable of connecting a pumpnot shown. The injection section 14 is connected with an air passage 16guiding a flow of air, and is disposed on the adhesion surface 8 locatedin the rear middle of the body 4 (see FIG. 4). The air passage 16 isprovided with valves 18 (see FIG. 3), each of which controls the flow ofair and is disposed in each air pocket 10 along a lengthwise directionat uniform intervals. The body 4 is formed at the rear upper end thereofwith the cover 6, which integrally extends so as to allow a product tobe protected from shock (see FIG. 3). The cover 6 is provided with thesame air pockets 10, which are connected to the air pockets 10 formed atthe body 4, and are partitioned and transversely arranged by theadhesion surfaces 8. Each air pocket 10 of the body 4 is formed in themiddle thereof with bending adhesion surfaces 20, which allow a bottom19 to be formed between front and rear lower portions of the body 4 whenthe air packing box is inflated with air to have a desired form. Eachair pocket 10 of the cover 6 is formed with a bending adhesion surface22, which allows the cover 6 to be folded at the rear upper end of thebody 4. In this manner, at the front of the body 4, the air pockets 10,which are integrally connected to the air pockets 10 formed in the rearof the body 4, are partitioned and transversely arranged by the adhesionsurfaces 8. Here, the air pockets 10, which are located at oppositesides of the front of the body 4, are separated from the air pockets 10,which are located at opposite sides of the rear of the body 4, by cutoutsections 24, thus failing to be supplied with air from the valves 18. Inorder to solve this problem, the adhesion surfaces 8, which are locatedon opposite sides of the front of the body 4 and between two of the airpockets 10 adjacent to the cutout sections 24, are provided with guideholes 25, which pass through the adhesion surfaces 8 and allow the airsupplied through the valves 18 to flow into the last air pockets 10 (seeFIG. 2). Accordingly, the guide holes 25 cause the air pockets 10 withand without the built-in valves 18 to be connected to allow the air toflow to each other. The body 4, the cover 6, and the valves 18 can bemade by selectively employing a plastic sheet, a vinyl sheet, a nylonfilm, a polyethylene film, and the like. Meanwhile, the opposite sidesof the lower end of the body 4 are each cut out at 90 degrees by apredetermined size, thereby forming the cutout sections 24, whichprevent corners of the lower end of the body 4 from protruding outsidewhen the air packing box 2 takes a desired form by air injection. Atthis time, the cutout sections 24 may be concavely formed without beingcut out at 90 degrees, or take another desired form. An operation of thepresent invention constructed as described above will be describedbelow. First, when the pump (not shown) is driven after being connectedto the injection hole 12 of the injection section 14 (see FIG. 2),compressed air flows along the air passage 16 through the injection hole12 to the air pockets 10 individually divided through the valves 18. Theair pockets 10 are inflated in a bulged form at a pre-determinedpressure by the continuously supplied air, and simultaneously the airpacking box 2 is spread to have a shape similar to a product. At thistime, a part of the air supplied to the second air pockets 10 located onthe opposite sides of the body 4 flows to and inflates the last airpockets 10 located on the sides of the opposite cutout sections 24. Inthis manner, the air flowing into the air pockets 10 remains in the airpockets 10 without leakage to the outside because the valves 18 close bythemselves due to air pressure. In this state, when external shock isapplied to the air packing box 2, the air filled in the air pockets 10serves as a cushion, thus absorbing and offsetting the external shock.As such, the shock is interrupted by the air pockets 10, and thus is nottransmitted to the inside of the air packing box 2. The spread body 4 asdescribed above has opposite upper and lower portions, which abut on thebending adhesion surfaces 20, formed as sidewalls and the bottom 19,respectively. At this time, the cutout sections 24 formed on theopposite sides of the lower end of the body 4 are spread, and in themeantime, edges of the air pockets defining each cutout section 24 movetoward each other. Therefore, when the air packing box 2 is spread bythe injected air, the opposite sides of the lower end of the body 4 takethe form of a straight line without protruding outside. In this state,when the product is placed into the air packing box 2, the body 4 isfurther spread out. Hence, the edges of the air pockets defining thecutout sections 24 formed on the opposite sides of the lower end of thebody 4 further approach each other. Afterwards, when the cover 6 ispushed aside with the bending adhesion surfaces 22 adopted as aboundary, the cover 6 closes the upper portion of the body 4, therebycovering an upper end of the product. Accordingly, the air packing box 2is in a state of completing packing. These air packing boxes 2 are inputand stacked in a storage box (not shown). In this case, these airpacking boxes 2 are loaded in a longitudinal and transverse arrangementin close contact with each other because each of them has no protrusionoutside its periphery.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

According to the present invention, the packing material inflated withair is improved so as to provide no protrusion outside its periphery dueto the cutout sections formed on the opposite sides of the lower end ofthe air packing box body when the air packing box is spread by air,wherein a plurality of air packing boxes are stacked in close contactwith each other when stacked in one storage box, so that more productscan be stably loaded in the storage box. Further, the packing materialinflated with air of the present invention can be applied to any packingmaterial inflated with air that is used as a shock-absorbing means whenpacking the product by inflating it with the supplied air. While thisinvention has been described in connection with what is presentlyconsidered to be the most practical and preferred embodiment, it is tobe understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosedembodiment and the drawings, but, on the contrary, it is intended tocover various modifications and variations within the spirit and scopeof the appended claims.

1. (canceled)
 2. (canceled)
 3. A structure of an inflatable packingmaterial, comprising: a body formed of a plurality of longitudinallyextending air pockets partitioned from each other by adhesion surfacesalong a circumference thereof, the body having a lower portion forming afront, a lower middle portion forming a bottom, an upper middle portionforming a back, an upper portion forming a cover, and side portionsextending from both sides of the back and both sides of the front; aninjection section formed on one side portion of the body and providedwith an injection hole; an air passage connected to the injection holeand transversely disposed in the body; and valves connected to the airpassage and installed in the air pockets traversed by the air passage;wherein the side portions do not extend adjacent the bottom of the bodyso as to form cutout sections on opposite sides thereof.
 4. Thestructure according to claim 3, wherein the air passage is transverselydisposed in the upper middle portion forming the back of the body andextends to the opposite side portion of the back.
 5. The structureaccording to claim 4, wherein adhesion surfaces located on oppositesides of the front of the body and between the side portions extendingfrom the front of the body are formed with guide holes that pass throughthe adhesion surfaces for inflation of the side portions extending fromthe front of the body.
 6. The structure according to claim 3, furthercomprising adhesion surfaces extending partially transverse to each airpocket at respective intersections of the front, bottom, back and coverof the body.
 7. The structure according to claim 3, further comprising aconnection between side portions extending from each side of the backand front so as to form a box structure.